The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is one of the American grassroots organizations that has a legal right to put up candidates for the legislative bodies, ARF Bureau's Hay Dat and Political Office Director Kiro Manoian told a news conference in Yerevan today. In his words, at the recent election to the House of Representatives the Armenian community supported about 50 nominees. "Armenians endorsed not only Democrats but also Republicans. 1/3 of the total number of 'our' candidates were Republicans and 2/3 were Democrats. In California we supported both nominees for the post of Governor since both Arnold Schwarzenegger and his opponent enjoy deep respect of the Californian Armenians. Before the election the ANCA provided the candidates with booklets containing information on Armenian problems, specifically the Armenian Genocide recognition, assistance to Nagorno Karabakh, the Armenian-American economic cooperation, parity in military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan, construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway," Manoian said.

He also remarked that the American Armenians are aware that the U.S. foreign policy is targeted at Turkey rather than at resolution of the Armenian problems. "However one should not forget that the U.S. Congress has recognized the starvation in Ukraine as genocide. It also recognized the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur. We are hopeful that the Democrats will open the agenda of the newly elected Congress with the item of the Armenian Genocide recognition. Of course, we may go phut if the President refuses to sign the document at the final stage. But this doesn't mean that we should sit around twiddling thumbs. We should activate works in this direction," Kiro Manoian underscored.